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New Scientist Live

Poaching causes hippo population crash

An aggressive pose reveals the hippopotamus’s teeth, which are prized by poachers

(Image: WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey)

The world’s biggest population of hippos has crashed by 95 per cent, leaving the giant creature as the latest of the planet’s megafauna to be in danger of extinction.

Less than 30 years ago, more than 29,000 hippos lazed in the rivers and rainforest backwaters of the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, after a decade of civil war, naturalists have returned to discover that just 1300 remain.

The census was carried out this summer by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature. They believe the main cause of the decimation is hunting by poachers for meat and teeth. Earlier in 2003, hundreds of park hippos were found dead in the Rutsuru river – most had been poisoned.

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The Congo carnage may not be unique. In neighbouring Burundi, a recent census found that 200 hippos – two-thirds of the national population – had disappeared in the last five years.

“This is disastrous news for the hippo,” warns Susan Lieberman, species director at the conservation charity WWF. “Unless poaching is stopped, hippos will be threatened with extinction.”

Ivory substitute

In recent years, hippo meat has become a delicacy in parts of central Africa. Furthermore, the present worldwide ban on the trade in elephant ivory has meant hippo teeth, which can grow to 60 centimetres or more long, have become a valuable substitute.

This switch is darkly ironic, because hippos are now much rarer than African elephants. The global hippo population is now estimated at about 150,000, but there are more than half a million African elephants.

The Virunga park covers 800,000 hectares and is Africa’s oldest, created in 1925. But large areas have been occupied by armed forces since 1994, denying access to wildlife wardens since 1994.

Estimates of the numbers of hippos in the park plunged from 10,000 in 1990 to 4000 in 1995. But the new census figures still came as a shock, says Lieberman. Until now, Congo was thought to have more hippos than any other country except Zambia.

Ecologists warn that the loss of the hippos could undermine the swamp and grassland ecosystems in the park. “Hippo dung provides essential basic elements for the food chain, particularly for fish,” says WWF’s Marc Lunguy. Among the first victims of the loss of the hippos will be the people in the region who depend on fish for their livelihoods.